Ascending

Rating:
Summary: She's ba-a-ack!
Review: The last time we saw of Oar -- a beautiful crystal woman -- she was dead, and laid to rest in one of the Towers for those with "Tired Brains" [Oar's people don't age, their brains just grow Tired]. But even death can't keep this woman down! Slowly, Oar awakens, to the discovery that she is the last of her people still awake. With the help of a kind [altho *Uclod* wouldn't describe himself that way!] Orange Man and his Large Wife Lajoolie, Oar sets out on a starship owned by Uclod to protect her people's legacy. The whimsically-named and -behaving living ship -Starbiter- finds herself in trouble almost too quickly, and only the appearance of Oar's Faithful Sidekick Festina Ramos -- yes, Oar's tale does include all those capitalizations! -- saves the day.

And that's only in the first hundred pages! This book is a fast read, so be warned; once you start, you *won't* want to put it down.

Written in the brashly self-confident style of a secure teenager [Podkayne of Mars *should* have been this good, & i like Heinlein], Oar's narrative zips along merrily with only a hint of Tiredness. Along the way, we learn more about the League of Sentients, and why they aren't as nice a people as they seemed in Garner's earlier tales. Before she's done, Oar learns that even she can grow Tired, and must face the difficult process of growing up, or face a fate far worse than death. There's even an appearance by a Strange Headless Person to complicate matters, for Oar is even more pivotal than she herself realizes...

Highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: Wacky and fun but sometimes implausible Space Opera
Review: _Ascending_ is James Alan Gardner's fourth novel about Festina Ramos, an "Explorer" with the Navy of the future Human Technocracy. Festina was the protagonist of Gardner's first novel, _Expendable_, in which we learn the general setup of his future history, to wit 1) humans (and a number of other alien species) have been given the secret of FTL travel as well as some other nice stuff such as life extension treatments by apparently benevolent aliens, 2) the more advanced aliens are the controlling races of the League of Peoples, a very loose confederation of beings that operates with one simple law: anyone who might kill another sentient being is considered non-sentient, and cannot travel outside their own Solar System: if they do, they die, instantly and mysteriously; and 3) the Human Navy's Explorer Corps is composed of disabled and disfigured people who are considered "expendable" because of their handicaps, thus handy for being sent on dangerous missions. John Clute called this last idea the silliest idea he had ever seen in SF, or words to that effect, and I agree.

After _Expendable_ Festina is no longer the POV character, but in each book she is an important secondary character. _Vigilant_ and _Hunted_ are mostly unlinked separate stories. _Ascending_, though, directly continues the story of a character from the first book, with the glass woman Oar of the planet Melaquin having awoken from a 4 year sleep, apparently cured of injuries she suffered in that book. She has been discovered by a criminal of the Divian species named Uclodd Unorr: a short orange humanoid. He has been hired to spirit Oar away before the Technocracy council of Admirals finds her, because they wish to make sure she cannot testify against them about the crimes on Melaquin. So Uclodd, his wife Lajoolie, and Oar are soon running away in the intelligent ship Starbiter. But they find that not only is the Human navy after them, so is a powerful alien species called the Shaddill -- the very species which sold FTL technology to Divians and Humans, and which is believed to have created Oar's people in the distant past. After some hair-raising adventures, they encounter Festina Ramos, then another strange alien species, the Cashlings. All the while Oar is in contact with a weird alien named the Pollisand, who claims to have brought her back from the dead, and who wishes her help in ridding the universe of the evil Shaddill.

The book is quite fun to read. It is told in Oar's inimitable voice, familiar to readers of _Expendable_: she is childish but charming, desperate for attention, very egotistical, profane. The reasons for all this are explained in the book. The voice is fun to read, and the action of the book is quite exciting as well. At the same time, there are caveats. The whole setup for Gardner's future is really absurd. Moreover, the science in these books is extremely rubbery, pretty much whatever it needs to be for plot purposes at any one time. I have seen a number of comments from readers for whom all this is too much, and they can't enjoy the books. I find that thoroughly understandable -- I can only say that I do like the books, albeit with reservations and a certain amount of eye-rolling and eyebrow-raising. I made a comment, in a review of one of the earlier books, that they reminded me, in some ways, of '50s SF: in the rubbery but fun science, and in the whole insouciance of the approach to things. I will say that Gardner's imagination is active: his aliens, though very humanlike in character, are neatly designed, and his tech, wacky is it is, is also often quite clever.

Rating:
Summary: Wacky and fun but sometimes implausible Space Opera
Review: _Ascending_ is James Alan Gardner's fourth novel about Festina Ramos, an "Explorer" with the Navy of the future Human Technocracy. Festina was the protagonist of Gardner's first novel, _Expendable_, in which we learn the general setup of his future history, to wit 1) humans (and a number of other alien species) have been given the secret of FTL travel as well as some other nice stuff such as life extension treatments by apparently benevolent aliens, 2) the more advanced aliens are the controlling races of the League of Peoples, a very loose confederation of beings that operates with one simple law: anyone who might kill another sentient being is considered non-sentient, and cannot travel outside their own Solar System: if they do, they die, instantly and mysteriously; and 3) the Human Navy's Explorer Corps is composed of disabled and disfigured people who are considered "expendable" because of their handicaps, thus handy for being sent on dangerous missions. John Clute called this last idea the silliest idea he had ever seen in SF, or words to that effect, and I agree.

After _Expendable_ Festina is no longer the POV character, but in each book she is an important secondary character. _Vigilant_ and _Hunted_ are mostly unlinked separate stories. _Ascending_, though, directly continues the story of a character from the first book, with the glass woman Oar of the planet Melaquin having awoken from a 4 year sleep, apparently cured of injuries she suffered in that book. She has been discovered by a criminal of the Divian species named Uclodd Unorr: a short orange humanoid. He has been hired to spirit Oar away before the Technocracy council of Admirals finds her, because they wish to make sure she cannot testify against them about the crimes on Melaquin. So Uclodd, his wife Lajoolie, and Oar are soon running away in the intelligent ship Starbiter. But they find that not only is the Human navy after them, so is a powerful alien species called the Shaddill -- the very species which sold FTL technology to Divians and Humans, and which is believed to have created Oar's people in the distant past. After some hair-raising adventures, they encounter Festina Ramos, then another strange alien species, the Cashlings. All the while Oar is in contact with a weird alien named the Pollisand, who claims to have brought her back from the dead, and who wishes her help in ridding the universe of the evil Shaddill.

The book is quite fun to read. It is told in Oar's inimitable voice, familiar to readers of _Expendable_: she is childish but charming, desperate for attention, very egotistical, profane. The reasons for all this are explained in the book. The voice is fun to read, and the action of the book is quite exciting as well. At the same time, there are caveats. The whole setup for Gardner's future is really absurd. Moreover, the science in these books is extremely rubbery, pretty much whatever it needs to be for plot purposes at any one time. I have seen a number of comments from readers for whom all this is too much, and they can't enjoy the books. I find that thoroughly understandable -- I can only say that I do like the books, albeit with reservations and a certain amount of eye-rolling and eyebrow-raising. I made a comment, in a review of one of the earlier books, that they reminded me, in some ways, of '50s SF: in the rubbery but fun science, and in the whole insouciance of the approach to things. I will say that Gardner's imagination is active: his aliens, though very humanlike in character, are neatly designed, and his tech, wacky is it is, is also often quite clever.